Sunday, February 04, 2007

Attention class... your wire lesson is about to begin. Please gather your supplies and put your eyes on me. Today we will be covering how to make my "Breeze" wire link without using a "Fiskars Right Angle Mandrel".

*Special note: to make my necklace seen in BeadStyle Magazine, you need to create seven of these links. I do not suggest working off a coil of 16g wire. I do recommend that you cut 7 pieces of wire at 5 inches and repeat the steps shown here on each piece as you go along.

To begin, take your five inch piece of wire and file the ends smooth. Make a mark on one side an inch from the end.

Use the widest part of your round nose pliers to start a coil on the end of wire not marked.

Your link should now look like this.

Continue using your round nose pliers to create a large loose coil in the wire.

Your smaller coil should stop near the 1 inch mark on the opposite end of your wire.

Using a 3 inch length of 18g half round wire, wrap the area of the link where the small loop and wire marking meet. You should have enough to wrap the area three times. Make sure both ends of the half round wire are on the same side of your link. Use your wire cutters to trim the ends and file if sharp.

You can you chain nose pliers to gently pinch the area wrapped. This will make sure your ends are tight to the link.

Your link should now look like this.

Again, using the base of your round nose pliers, create a second loop with the 1 inch length of wire on the end of your link.

This is your finished link.

Your finished links should be tumbled in a rotary tumbler to work harden and polish them. Approx 30 mins with water, stainless steel shot and dish soap should work them well.

9 comments:

Awesome Kerry! Thanks for the tutorial! I just picked up the magazine this weekend while we were in NJ. The article looked really good..you're totally famous now! Oh and the new beads are just amazing! I love the silver/ivory encased.

That's funny. I was reading the magazine yesterday, saw the necklace and was all "Ooh! I like that! I could do that!...HEY! That's that blogger!!!" ;-)

Love the new beads. I showed my mom the mumps one and she wanted to know what she had to buy me to get me started making my own. I then reminded her it required open flame and that was the end of that idea. (I have four small very busy boys who know how to pick locks. And I'm pretty accident prone, myself)

Yeah, you could hammer it. I would use a nylon mallet instead of a chasing hammer to have it hold it's shape. Another alternative is to put all the finished links in a cloth pouch and toss it in the washing machine with a load of laundry. It has the same effect!

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The text, images, tutorials, and designs on this blog are the sole property of Kerry Bogert and Kab's Creative Concepts and protected by copyright law. Do not copy, reproduce, or represent any content without the expressed written permission from the artist.